Problems With Poetry
by alb925
Summary: Neville tries to write Luna a Valentine's Day note, but he struggles to write the perfect poem. Can he write one in time to give it to Luna for Valentine's Day? Entry for the Twin Exchange Monthly Challenge


**A/N: This is my entry for the February Twin Exchange monthly challenge. The polls go up on the 20th and go until March 10th, so be sure to go vote for the story you like best! **

**Theme: ** Valentine's Day

**Pairing: **Neville and Luna

**Prompt:** Quill, Strawberries

**Quotes: **"Try again," "What's the difference?" "Nothing's as big as your ego," "Everyone does it," "Last one"

* * *

><p>"Roses are red, violets are blue. I just wanted to say that I like you." Neville read from the paper aloud as he paced around his empty dorm. With a sigh, he crumpled the note up and tossed it onto his bed, where it joined his other numerous failed attempts at telling Luna he liked her.<p>

Valentine's Day was the next day and Neville had decided that the holiday was the best way to tell Luna what he had wanted to tell her for ages. His sixth year at Hogwarts was already more than halfway over and besides that, everyone was certain a war was coming. Neville didn't know how much time or how many opportunities he had left to let Luna know how he felt.

He had tried to write note after note, poem after poem. He had tried basic, he had tried crazy; he had tried sweet and he had tried straightforward, but nothing sounded right.

"What's going on, Neville? What are all these papers?"

Neville jumped and turned around to see Seamus standing in the doorway. "Nothing," he said quickly, trying to sweep the pile of crumpled papers into the trash bin next to his bed. Seamus was quick, though, and managed to cross the room and grab one of the notes. He opened it and cleared his throat.

"'Gryffindor is red, Ravenclaw is blue, this poem is silly, but I really like you'. Who is this for?"

"Just a person," Neville said, trying to snatch the paper back, but Seamus held it out of his reach. He was surprisingly good at that, considering he was shorter than Neville.

"I figured it was a _person_," Seamus teased, "and not the giant squid or the Venomous Tentacula."

"Shut it and give me the note back."

"Let me guess who it's for," Seamus said. "It's obviously a Ravenclaw. Is it Cho Chang? I heard she was still with Michael Corner-,"

"No, it's not Cho Chang," Neville said quickly.

"Professor Sprout?"

"She's the head of _Hufflepuff, _Seamus, and no. Why would I write her a Valentine?"

"Oh, I know," Seamus said, snapping his fingers. "It's the Grey Lady."

"No!" Neville said, appalled.

"Then who?"

"Luna," Neville mumbled.

"Loony Lovegood?" Seamus asked.

"_Luna_ Lovegood," Neville said, glaring at Seamus.

"Wow, okay, sorry," Seamus answered, handing the note back to Neville and taking a step back. "Don't bite my head off."

"I like her, Seamus. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Seamus answered quickly. "That's good if you do. I just can't believe you're writing her a poem."

"What?" Neville shrugged. "Everyone does it. Right?"

"Well maybe not everyone…"

"—but a lot of people…right?"

"Sure. I mean, Luna would probably like a poem, but I think you should, well…"

"I should what?"

"Try again. With another note."

"I know. These are all stupid. It's why they're all crumpled."

"You know who I think could help you?"

"Who?"

"Fred and George," Seamus said. "I was at their shop over the holidays and they sell these quills that write love notes and poems for you."

"Are they good ones? They aren't silly or ridiculous?"

"I don't know. I bought one, but haven't used it yet," Seamus shrugged.

"I thought you didn't write poems."

"I didn't say that."

"You implied it."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

Seamus shrugged. "My point is that you should order one."

"Valentine's Day is tomorrow," Neville said. "Could they get me one in time?"

"Probably."

"I don't want to risk it, though," Neville answered nervously.

"Wow, you're really worried about this." Seamus smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Neville admitted, blushing.

"Okay, I'll let you borrow my quill then," Seamus said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a red quill. "Let me know what happens. If it turns out the notes are stupid, then I won't be using it. You can be the guinea pig"

"Seamus," Neville groaned as his friend left the dorm, laughing.

Neville sat down on his bed and started a new note using the quill. He actually closed his eyes as the quill moved by itself across the page. When he opened his eyes and looked down, he almost died. _You're very short, I wish you were taller. And your head is too big. It needs to be smaller._

What kind of poem was that? Neville crumpled it up and tried again, praying that the quill would write a good poem this time. He closed his eyes and opened them again. _Roses are red, violets are blue, only a love potion could make me love you._ Neville tore that one up and tried again. And again. And again.

_Your eyes are shiny, and so are your shoes, but you're not the girl I ever would choose._

_Goblins are small and dragons are scary. I would only like you if your name was Mary._

_You have huge eyes and a lovely big toe, but nothing's as big as your ego._

This was so typical of Fred and George. Neville had known the quill's notes would be stupid, but for some reason he kept trying, as if hoping that eventually the quill would have to spew out a good note.

"Okay, last one," Neville finally said to himself. He was at his wit's end with this quill. He was about ready to give up, write 'be mine,' and be done with it. When he finally looked down at the note, he sighed. _You smell like tulips, blowing in the breeze, but I don't like flowers; they make me sneeze._ It was actually one of the better ones, which was sad.

Neville stood and brushed all of the discarded poems onto the floor. Tomorrow he would feed all of them to the Venomous Tentacula. The thing was always trying to eat his Herbology notes anyway, but he actually needed those. The poems, well, even looking at the crumpled papers made him embarrassed. Couldn't there be an easy way to tell a girl he liked her?

* * *

><p>Neville pushed open the greenhouse door with his back. His arms were full of the failed love notes, so using them to open the door wasn't an option. He had stuck the quill, as well as two of his earlier attempts at a note, in his pocket. The notes were both silly, but it was better than having nothing and he could decide later which one to use.<p>

He turned around after backing into the greenhouse and promptly dropped all the notes he had been holding. Luna was standing at the other end of the room, picking up various strawberries and examining them one by one.

"Hello, Neville," she said without turning around.

Neville didn't answer or move right away. "Hi, Luna," he finally said, crouching down and hurriedly picking up all the notes. Unsure of what to do with them at the moment, he shoved them all under his sweater. If he wanted to get to the Venomous Tentacula, he'd have to walk by Luna and he didn't want to risk her seeing a single one of those notes. "What are you doing here?" he asked nervously.

Luna turned and smiled at him; a smile that made Neville's knees go weak. "Oh, I was just getting some strawberries. Professor Sprout said it was okay. I wanted to make earrings out of them."

"Oh, I see," Neville squeaked.

"Your sweater looks especially lumpy today," Luna observed.

"Spider bite," Neville said quickly. "It got infected. Very badly."

"Oh, yes, it must have been one of those large spiders from the forest," Luna said.

"Yeah," Neville quickly agreed.

"Which strawberry looks the nicest to you?" She held up two different strawberries and Neville stepped closer for a better look. As he did, he tripped and all of the poems fell from his sweater.

"You're cured," Luna observed.

"I, uh, didn't really get bitten by a spider," Neville said.

"I know," Luna answered.

"You did?"

She nodded and smiled that dreamy smile that Neville loved. "I just thought there was something that you weren't ready to share and that I shouldn't bother you about it. It's quite annoying when people pressure you to say things you don't want to."

Neville nodded. "Yeah, it is."

Luna bent down and started picking up the notes. "Were you going to feed these to the Venomous Tentacula?"

"Yeah, how did you know it liked to eat paper?"

"It ate my Herbology notes last week."

Neville smiled. "Yeah, that's almost happened to me before." He bent down and started gathering up the notes as well.

"Are these for someone special?"

"Why do you ask?"

"It's Valentine's Day," Luna said. "People write notes to each other on Valentine's Day. Everyone does it, right?"

"Yeah," Neville said slowly, pausing. "Do you?"

Luna shook her head. "I've never had anyone to write one to."

"Oh," Neville answered, not knowing what else to say. "I never did either. Until this year."

"Who were these supposed to be for?" Luna asked. "If you don't mind my asking, of course."

"Er," Neville said, blushing. He finished gathering up the notes and took the ones Luna was holding before standing up and gently nudging the Venomous Tentacula with his foot. It opened its mouth and waved its tentacles. Neville dumped the notes inside quickly. "They were supposed to be for you, but they were all stupid."

"For me?" Luna looked thrilled. "Oh, I'm sure they were very nice."

"Well, no, some of them weren't that great at all. You see, Seamus let me borrow a quill he bought from Fred and George." Neville pulled the quill out of his pocket and showed Luna. "It was supposed to write poems on its own, but none of them were really fit to give anyone. Seamus told me that he was using me as the guinea pig to see if this worked or not. I might just tell him it worked so I can laugh when he makes a fool out of himself."

Luna giggled. "Well, I'm sorry it didn't work."

Neville reached into his pocket again and pulled out the two notes he had saved. "I wrote these on my own. I saved them so I would have _something_ to give you."

Luna beamed and took the two notes. She opened the first one and read it out loud. "'Your eyes are blue, my eyes are green; you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen'." She looked up at him, smiling even wider. "How incredibly kind of you, Neville," she said before looking down at the next note. It was the one Seamus had read the day before. "'Gryffindor is red, Ravenclaw is blue, this note is silly, but I really like you'. Oh, Neville, these are lovely."

"They are?"

"Oh yes. Even if that quill did write perfect notes, I would still like these better because you wrote them yourself. They're honest and personal. I'd rather you think highly of me than that quill."

Neville laughed. "Yeah, I see what you're saying."

Luna smiled. "And do you want to know what else?"

"What?"

"Nargles are real and so is the Snorkack, but the important thing is that I like you back."

Neville's mouth dropped open. "Did you just make that up now?"

Luna nodded.

"Impressive," Neville said.

Luna smiled as she tucked her two Valentine's notes into her pocket and turned back to the strawberries. "So, you never answered my question. Which strawberry looks the nicest?"

"They're all nice," Neville said. "I mean, what's the difference?"

"There really isn't any difference. I just wanted your opinion."

Neville grinned. She had wanted his opinion. He rather liked that. He bit his lip and nervously dug his toe into the ground. "So, there's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow. Do you want to go with me?"

After a second, Luna smiled widely at him. "That must have seemed like a difficult task, but yes I will go; I was hoping you'd ask."

Neville smiled and gave her a look. "You're making me look stupid."

Luna slipped her hand into his and they began walking towards the door. "That's not what I was trying to do. The only person who can do that is you."

"Are you going to speak in rhyme forever now?" Neville asked.

"Now that I've started, yes, I just might-,"

"Unless I can get you to see the light," Neville finished.

"There you go, Neville. You're getting it. Your Valentine's Day worked out for the better, even though you might've stretched out your sweater."

Neville laughed. "As much fun as this is, Luna," he said, "I don't think I want to hear another poem for a while."

Luna nodded. "I understand, and I think it's grand."

"Luna!" Neville laughed.

"Okay, I'm done. I promise."

"You swear?"

"Cross my heart."

Neville smiled. Even though his notes had done the trick, Neville couldn't help but feel relieved that he didn't have to write any more poems. At least until next year, of course, but he suspected that with Luna around, he'd be getting lots of practice.


End file.
